Practical Semantic Web and Why You Should Care

session details: Practical Semantic Web and Why You Should Care

video by Robert Nelson Vance

The Semantic Web is for propellor-heads with Ph.D.s
it's really about bringing more meaning to the Web.
RDF = Resource Description Framework = "robot food" -- turn human-readable information into machine-readable, distinct XML format
RDFa is the standard adopted October 14, 2008 by the W3C allowing RDF to be embedded within XHTML pages
- both formats are searchable with SPARQL, but RDF is usually more appropriate for large quantities of data, to strip out the non-semantic text
sometimes Apple is a fruit, sometimes a company, etc. links need "flavor"
- in HTML, can use <a rel=> to give links flavor
- RDFa allows you to use <a property=>
how to add these semantic tags to your pages?
- OpenCalais is a top-down process -- point it at your site, and it adds tags
- bottom-up approach is to add tags as we create themes, pages, etc.
- Zemanta module will automatically suggest relevant images for pages as you write them, and tag them appropriately
http://Recovery.gov is using Drupal 5, does not currently support XML output, but that is planned
StumbleSafely, dc Bikes use open data and Drupal to create new information
DC's Digital Public Square is "pure robot food" -- needs processing to make it palatable to humans
in the past, we moved data to where the processing is (desktop computers); in the future we will move processing to where data is (web servers)
- Internet will be like the public library system, but for robots
Drupal is on track to be the first general-purpose CMS with significant semantic data out of the box. D7 will be the most widely deployed semantic platform as soon as it is released.
- existing sites (dbpedia, FOAF profiles, etc.) have over 2 billion RDF triplets. D7 will conservatively produce that many each month, probably more.
Views in the future could (will) use SPARQL to retrieve data from other sites
maybe you care about money: "blog" stands for Better Listings on Google. Post to a blog, your ratings go up
existing modules: RDF, RDFCCK, SPARQL, EVoc, Exhibit, Exhibit Views (?)
MOAT module currently only for D5, allows free tagging to be semantic
go forth and experiment today!
Dries said every movement needs a mission -- Drupal's is to help evolve the Web.
question: how can we trust the information people have marked up? Won't spammers exploit RDF? Distributed identity & trust networks to the rescue... but there will undoubtedly be more problems to solve.
http://groups.drupal.org/semantic-web